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Letters to Nowhere

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Family anxiety, cookies, and outer space.

As the silent partner in this admittedly dual blogspot, I usually let my more eloquent, and lovely, partner make the commentary. All things considered, and the folks that read these posts can back me up on this, she has a Dave Berry-ish way of making the most mundane of subjects bright, cheerful, provocative and interesting. That's probably why I talk to her so much. However.......

I am currently visiting my family in Lower Po-dunk British Columbia. My father recently got out of the hospital after some surgery that left him with the equivalent of a Motorman's friend. That's how I refer to it, at least. He had his bladder removed and replaced with a specially built one that has an opening out his abdomen. The opening there has a plastic doodad that allows a bag to be attached. This is where he now urinates. Grizzly, I know, to bring up the P word in a public forum, but there you go. I spent the better part of last night absorbing my sister's and mother's description of this opening. The stoma, as it's called, fronts a small sac that is created from a portion of the bowel. Now, the opening is hard to describe. I will post a site at the end of this. Needless to say, my mother(who is seventy eight, and very proper) described the opening as ''an asshole, with the end looking like the opening of a penis.'' Of course, this will be the talk of the family for a while.

I cannot easily communicate with my paramour during my hiatus here in the backwoods, as it were. However, I did want to address a few other things. If those damned cookies are so good, then you should be able to stand behind them, and say that, despite my dried grape challenges, I could eat these things.

And speaking of outer space, those of us further north got a show worthy of the inconvenience of living in the Frozen (sic) North. Area 652, a number designated by the folks that observe sunspots, generated a flare that was rated in the M class. (for notes on what the hell I'm talking about, got to www.spaceweather.com) This created incredible auroras that were visible as far south as Northern California. We had a great show in these parts. My great and good friend here groused at the fact that she's too far south to see these things. All I can say is ''Space Shuttle launches''. My lovely has seen a number of those, and sees them as sort of banal now. Well, I guess she has something to dangle over the heads of those of us who see auroras, or the incredible comet displays of a few years ago. Best visible in the north those were.

Just one other thing. The Perseid meteor showers will be particularly good this year. These will in the last few dark hours of August 12th. For more information go to http://www.space.com/spacewatch/040723_perseid_preview.html

Now that cookies, and the universe, are in balance...............






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